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The Candid Conservative
Conservatives are careful with the liberty, property, life and values of others. For the next few weeks we're going to take a look at the values piece of that equation. This week we will look at right to life issues...
Right to Life Choices
The right to life is widely viewed as a grounding issue for conservatives. It's no small paradox that support for the death penalty and against physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill are also associated with the conservative movement. Assumptions frequently betray truth - the authentic conservative position on abortion, the death penalty, and the right-to-die are not what they seem.
Abortion rights and other life issues involve moral, social, spiritual considerations meriting society's fullest passions and deliberations. Neither the power politics of Washington's left-right tug of war nor the vanities of Supreme judiciaries are up to that undertaking.
The conservative position on abortion, physician assisted suicide, and the death penalty centers on Constitutional prescription. Without exception, these are states' rights issues far better addressed by the eyes, hearts, and minds of fifty empowered entities than one.
A conservative's moral and spiritual position on these issues may run in direct and unpleasant opposition to their political position. That is an internal dilemma for each of us to address in our own fashion. It is not an opportunity, however, to confuse the conservative mission by pretending that a pro or con position is faithfully conservative.
Pretend conservative politicians know that triggering supporter's moral and spiritual passions can be an effective way around principled service. Name recognition and image capture most votes - next comes position on social concerns. The words, "I am against abortion and taxes and for the military and the death penalty", have elected many a self-serving and unprincipled politician.
From the moral, social, and spiritual perspective of this author, the evidence of the dramatic harms from abortion is irrefutable. Were this book about the author's personal beliefs and values, a position against abortion would be readily apparent. The author's conflict of interest mirrors what many of us face on life choice issues. In the final analysis the authentic conservative position is on how these cultural decisions are addressed - not what those decisions should be.
Dr. Carl Mumpower
TheCandidConservative
June 16, 2010
"We must confine ourselves to the powers described in the Constitution, and the moment we pass it, we take an arbitrary stride towards a despotic government."
Andrew Jackson
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